Smartphone addiction and psychological distress among Vietnamese college students: cyber-victimization as a mediator and academic stress as a moderator
Journal of Public Mental Health
ISSN: 1746-5729
Article publication date: 3 March 2023
Issue publication date: 27 March 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of cyber-victimization (CV) and the moderating effect of academic stress (AS) in the link between smartphone addiction (SPA) and psychological distress (PD) among a sample of Vietnamese college students.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 423 college students participated in this study. Measures of SPA, CV, AS and PD were used for data collection. Using PROCESS macro software (Model 4 and Model 1) and the bootstrapping method, the author performed a mediation analysis and a moderation analysis.
Findings
Results indicated a significant mediating effect of CV in the link between SPA and PD. Moreover, this relationship was moderated by AS.
Originality/value
The findings could serve as a guide for future research and mental health professionals.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: None.
Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee.
Conflicting interests: None.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.
Data availability statement: Research data are not shared.
Citation
Ho, T.T.Q., Tran, T.K.L. and Huynh, S.V. (2023), "Smartphone addiction and psychological distress among Vietnamese college students: cyber-victimization as a mediator and academic stress as a moderator", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-08-2022-0081
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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